Phnom Penh urged to stop denying landmines

The Thai Army has bluntly demanded that Cambodia stop denying its troops’ responsibility for laying new anti-personnel landmines along the Thai-Cambodian border.

The statement, by Maj-Gen Winthai Suvaree, spokesman for the Thai Army, was in response to a statement yesterday by the Cambodian Defence Ministry, claiming that that Cambodia had never laid new landmines along the border and has always complied with its obligations under the Ottawa Convention, which bans the use of anti-personnel landmines.

Refuting the Cambodian claim, Maj-Gen Winthai pointed out that only Thai and Cambodian troops have been present along the shared borderline and that only Thai soldiers have sustained injuries from landmines.

He then provided details of mine laying detected by Thai troops:

· On August 4, Thai troops found a quantity of PMN-2 anti-personnel landmines, including those already laid and some ready to be laid, left at Phu Makua, the scene of fierce fighting between Thai and Cambodian forces between July 24th and 28th.

· On August 22, 2-3 Cambodian soldiers from the elite BHQ unit were spotted at Mount 305, near the Ta Kwai Temple ruins, and were forced to retreat when Thai troops opened fire. A subsequent check of the area uncovered three PMN-2 landmines.

· Images taken at the Ta Kwai Temple ruins, and posted on Cambodian social media on July 31st by a Cambodian influencer, show several PMN-2 landmines. Moreover, a clip found in a cell phone, left at Phu Makua by a Cambodian soldier, features a Cambodian soldier holding a PMN-2 landmine as he talks with a fellow soldier in what appears to be a demonstration of how to handle a PMN-2 landmine before it is laid.

Winthai also noted that, at the General Border Committee (GBC) meeting on August 7th, Cambodia had rejected Thailand’s proposal for cooperation in mine clearance efforts.

He added that, even though Cambodia accepted Thailand’s proposal for demining cooperation at the latest Regional Border Committee meeting, it has resorted to delay tactics by referring the matter to the GBC for consideration.

The army spokesman dismissed Cambodia’s claim that there are still many old landmines in some areas along the shared border, saying that the Thai Mine Action Centre (TMAC) had cleared a total of 1,300 landmines since 2019.

He noted that the old landmines, used during the war in Cambodia decades ago, were different from the PMN-2 anti-personnel landmines, which are new and made of hard plastic, claiming that Cambodia is in possession of more than 3,700 PMN-2 landmines, purportedly for training purposes.

As such, Winthai said that the Thai Army is demanding that Cambodian troops uphold military dignity and honour and that denying something they have done, while Thailand has clear evidence to the contrary, is a shameful act indeed.